Chapter 349 - Have fun (Patreon)

At some point, Tacita lets go of my legs and lands nimbly like a cat, running somewhere else already with her incredible speed.

I look at Noodle, who is still coiled around my arm, "Why aren't you that big?" I gesture at the giant lizard. Noodle seems to understand and flickers his tongue a few times instead of answering.

Okay, you’re cute, so you can keep your secrets. But remember good ol' Nat who fed you his mana when you will be the size of a skyscraper.

Detecting where the leadership is, I push myself there, and when I land, a stream of words can be heard as everyone is discussing.

“Yes, I can fight it, but I believe it would cost me my life or render me useless afterward,” a man clad in simple armor says. The highest level native, the one close to three hundred.

“How is it possible that there is such a strong monster? This event is meant to be for all difficulties, this just doesn't make any sense,” Samuel asks, looking around confused.

Oh, but it makes sense.

My eyes meet Tess's, and I whisper, “I was right.”

The system is an asshole.

Tess doesn't react, as people tend to do when they are wrong and facing someone smarter who understands the ways of the world.

I was right.

“Noname, do you think you can take it on? You have no restriction,” Brainiac asks, he and his group close to Gareth.

“Who knows.”

For the first time, Savant also joins the conversation, “There is surely a way around it. The system is extremely fair, so it wouldn’t do that without a way to deal with it.”

Oh? So that's how he looks at the system?

“Maybe that guy is meant to take care of the lizard?” Maya gestures towards the strongest native knight.

“Maybe.” Tess pauses, listening to an invisible voice, and then continues, "Dennis says the monster stopped attacking after it broke the 1st wall, and more and stronger monsters will soon reach the second one.”

“Maybe it's here only to break the walls? A mechanic by the system?” Brainiac wonders, “Or it is on cooldown and needs some time to recharge its ability to break the walls and barriers.”

“This is not a game, Max,” Gareth says.

“Oh, come on, Gary, even these natives are nothing like the ones on the floor. This stuff feels extremely gamey. We just need to CC the lizard when it tries to destroy another wall. Or we can try to kill it before that?”

“CC?” Gareth asks, but Brainiac ignores him and continues to tell something to others.

Through the Connection the twins keep up only between Group 4, I send a message, (I'm sure the lizard isn't all. I will stay somewhere to the side and join at the end or do something flashy when you are out of the event.)

(You don't want to help?) Aaron asks, somewhat surprised.

Instead of me, Tess answers, (Just let him do his thing. This is a nice opportunity for us to develop some teamwork.)

Multiple more messages are exchanged, but I already lift off, feeling Savant's examining gaze on me.

I head deeper into the fortress, even beyond the first wall, and there I sit on top of the tower, my legs dangling over the edge with a view of the remaining two walls and the destroyed one.

Even from this distance, I can see the lizard just lying near the rubble of the 1st wall and waiting. Maybe Brainiac really is right, or the lizard is meant to deal with stronger opponents and will move only to face them or destroy the walls.

As before, thousands of monsters, ants and spiders move over the debris. These ones are slightly bigger, and their levels getting closer to 100.

I watch as they catch up with groups from Easy or Normal difficulties that were unable to escape quickly enough. The groups face them while pulling back with support from Hard difficulty.

A single spider the size of a motorcycle catches up to five weaker members, and I have fun watching as they face him with their might. There is something enthralling about seeing a group of people facing an opponent stronger than they are.

They are giving it their all, bleeding, screaming, using the last bits of their mana. There is no escape as there are more monsters all around them, and they are scared of dying, not having tasted it yet. So, they fight, giving it their all.

When the spider dies, stabbed with a spear by one of them, they seem proud. The fear they felt until now is replaced by the elation of victory.

The feeling fades as a group of bigger ants reaches them, turning them into shiny particles as they disappear from the event.

Similar sights are happening all over.

A group trying to help another one is swallowed by a bigger group of monsters. A lonely woman surrounded by yellow flames fights against a group of monsters. The group running and barely escaping to the wall where someone stronger faces the monsters that were following them.

And the entire time, I keep working on the axe I hold.

 ***

More time passes, and three hours remain.

Easy difficulty is mostly wiped out, with a few members remaining that once in a while throw in some ranged attack, unable to do more.

The second wall is already getting surrounded and battered by endless hordes of monsters with a new one appearing. An octopus-like monster that moves on the ground is always surrounded by dozens of other monsters protecting it.

Their role is simple, getting close to the barrier and slowly corroding it with the cooperation of others of its kind. The attack they make is surprisingly effective, draining the barrier.

That's when Hell difficulty decided to move, throwing ranged attacks on the monsters while letting Normal and Hard difficulty take care of the rest together with natives.

As before, everyone knows the difficulty is increasing, so they are saving their mana, only using amounts they know will regenerate quickly.

 ***

After another thirty minutes, the Quake Serpent moves. The giant monster stands up, the immense mass of its body moving alone threatening.

Pausing my work, I turn my attention down to the others and do it just in time.

The crown that floats around Tess's head shines brighter, white and red lightning surrounding her and an epic javelin floats near her. She declares something inaudible, lightning seeping into the weapon. All eyes are on her as she stands on the second wall, her golden hair floating, lightning cracking around it.

She grabs a javelin and takes a stance, her leg moving back as she twists her body, the wall cracking around her. Then she throws the weapon.

Like myriad birds chirping, the lightning crackles as it passes through the air. Its flight speeds up even more in the middle, something caused by either Min-Jae helping or Tess herself.

The lizard doesn’t even have time to react, and the javelin lodges itself deep into its eye, disappearing somewhere inside its head.

As it does so, the monster starts thrashing around while letting out screams that can be felt as vibrations in the chest. The monster releases the energy it was collecting, an explosion with it at the epicenter shaking the earth, creating holes in the ground, and even not aimed correctly, partially damaging the wall.

The monster twists, twitches, scrambles, scratching its own head into a bloody ruin in an attempt to get rid of the piercing pain of Tess's attack and the lightning that now burns inside its head.

More and more mana radiates from the monster until the lightning stops. The lightning that flickered in its eye now gone, drowned by the monster’s mana.

The silence is almost eerie, followed only by the sound of falling debris caused by the thrashing of the wounded monster.

Then the lizard turns its remaining eye toward where the attack came from. Its tongue flickers a few times, and something changes. The scales of the monster change color. From dark gray, they turn lighter, and like a wave, a shockwave radiates from the monster at the center. The attacks that land on its body now barely damage it, either sliding off or dispersing upon impact. As if a tiny stone was thrown against a wall.

So the test attack revealed a bit about the monster’s skills. I don’t think it was an attempt to kill it. They would have used Lily otherwise. Just a probe to see what they are facing. They are unwilling to use their all, as they have a growing suspicion that the Quake Serpent isn't the end of it and might just be the start.

They could throw their all into trying to kill the giant monster quickly so they have fewer opponents to deal with later, but they don’t know if the monster wouldn’t pull some trick on them. It is three question marks, the monster over level 300.There might also be another enemy waiting just for that.

Using the distraction, someone touches the web Sophie and the twins set up. It's a sharp, yet smooth movement. Hard to notice and clinical, using the fact that nearly everyone was focused on the lizard.

(Was this you?) a message sounds in my head. Sophie obviously noticed it as well.

(Nope.)

(I thought so, this felt different. Someone absorbed a small part of my web, creating a weak connection to it. It was him, right?)

(Most likely.) From where I sit, I track the person who did that.

Savant, noticing the touch of my mana, pushes against it, a gentle orange light radiating from him. But before he does that, I notice that he is doing something with the broken blade he brought here. He seems to be preparing something as well.

I could stop him. I could even fly down there and forcefully take the sword off him. He would probably leave the event rather than let me, but even that could be a win for me.

What stops me is simple curiosity.

I want to see what he can do with the [Restriction] he placed and with his skills and the sword. I already have a suspicion of what the latter is.

So I just let it be and sneakily, to not leave any tracks for Sophie, I clear the parts Savant messed up so she can't cut him off easily.

Then after seeing that the giant lizard doesn't attack, I return to the axe on my lap.

 ***

Two hours remain, and I have a theory.

As the natives said, there is a group of people attacking who specialize in taming. That group is controlling the Quake Serpent and using it only to destroy the walls when they are weakened.

This could be a setup made by the system, or the fact that the group just doesn't want to throw the Serpent into an attack against a close to level 300 human who defends the Aether Keep, who would probably kill it with an advantage as a defender.

So currently, it's a face-off game, one side waiting for another to make the first step while weaker forces fight each other.

Moving for the third time, the Lizard destroys the second wall and, as before, stronger monsters start rushing out of the tunnels. Plenty of them over level 150, ants, spiders, octopuses, and now even termites, in huge amounts.

Once again, the strongest out of the people from the tutorial do not react and wait.

Hard difficulty people are fighting now, with some people from Hell difficulty joining in, for the first time a nice amount of mana covering the area and high damage skills activating.

I observe it for a while, curious to see at what level other people are or what kind of skills they are using. While doing so, I also sneakily dabble with Sophie's web, watching what Savant does to it. I find it interesting, and some of these things inspire me a lot so I change my plans a bit.

Savant's messing with the web feels clumsy but the progress and improvement he shows is nothing less than amazing. His clumsy first attempts quickly become much more confident and sneaky as he analyzes parts of the web and, while hiding from Sophie, absorbs some parts of it.

That's what they call a genius.

Some of the things he does are eye-opening, in ways I didn't even think of and would most likely take me dozens of attempts to think of. And he does it all with such a severe [Restriction].

But even then, he is far below my level and if I used my [Focus] and eyes, I would blow him out of the water easily. My skills and trait are just so much better when it comes to it, and I'm sure they would continue to be so even if we were at the same [Restriction].

Even so, I'm not blind enough to not accept a simple fact: Savant is more talented than me.

However, it's something I never cared too much about. I've seen people like him my entire life. People born with talent, people born with stronger bodies or other advantages. In the end, it's about who is crazy enough to push themselves further.

Standing up, I stretch and take a glance at the fight going on down there. Thousands of monsters climb over two destroyed walls, throwing themselves against the people standing under the last one or those shooting from the top of the wall while the barrier flickers around, attacked by the octopus-like monsters.

Screams, cries, and noises of skills burning through the air fill the area as blood is spilled.

Two hours remain until the end of the event, but my preparations are already done.

To be honest, watching them fight down there is annoying. It's frustrating to see how hesitant and careful they are. Sure, there's some logic to it, but if it were up to me, the giant lizard would be nuked out of the event the moment it appeared. That would probably screw things up, and I would end up losing a limb or two, but it would feel more satisfying.

So while others have fun, let's check the Aether Keep. 

(Have fun,) I send through the connection kept up by the twins and head towards the mines.

***

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